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Plagues
Plagues See also: Historical Medical Knowledge The history of plagues throughout the Nesarian Empire is relatively tame. The enclosed nature of the Nesarian Empire and especially of Nesaria itself makes the country easy to quarantine, and the Emperors routinely blocked the border whenever there were even rumours of plague. This significantly reduced the amount of plague-bearers coming into the Empire, as only those who got in before the closure of the border could spread the plague. Black Death The Nesarian Empire managed to avoid the worst of the Black Death by locking down the borders, eventually having to build miles of walls around the entire traversable border to enforce the lockdown. However, many carriers of the Black Death did successfully get in before the borders were locked, spreading the Black Death throughout Estemoria and Avamoria. The other countries in the Empire were successfully quarantined, stopping the spread of the Black Death, meaning that while the plague killed as many as 66% of the population in much of Europe, only approximately 10% of the Empire's population died to the Black Death. Cholera The Nesarians and Osdarthians, master city-builders, have always been experts at managing waste, resulting in almost no contamination between drinking water and human waste, the main cause of Cholera. The Nesarians also spread their building practices to the nations they conquered. However, in areas which were either undeveloped (e.g. Drazak) or developed too quickly to manage (e.g. Estemoria), sewage systems were less than ideal which resulted in small but frequent Cholera outbreaks up until the late 19th century when new regulations were introduced and a vast program was undertaken to improve the general organisation of cities in the Empire. The Trouble The Trouble was a plague that swept across the Empire from approximately 941 to 956. It is unknown what the plague actually was, as its symptoms do not correspond with any other known disease, and the leading theory is that it was originated by the Putrid Ones, as the period saw an unprecendented amount of them invade this world from the Dreadlands. Not everyone who was infected had every symptom. Approximately 1/3 of the population was naturally immune, and an individual would become immune if they survived infection. 45% of infected died within three days, 35% died a week and 20% survived. The survival rate dramatically rose for the wealthy, who had access to high quality healthcare. An estimated 30-40% of the Empire (7,500,000-10,000,000 of approximately 25,000,000) died in the plague. The symptoms were as follows, in order of most common to least common: * Severe chesty cough * Sneezing * Fever * Painful rash all over the body * Cysts all over body * Abscesses all over body * Boils and/or carbuncles all over body * Insomnia * Vomiting * Diarrhea * Urinary incontinence The disease could be spread through coming into contact with any bodily fluid from an infected individual. Although knowledge of medicine at this time was lacking, the doctors of the Empire quickly learned this. This also taught them that diseases could be spread through contact, which was highly beneficial to the advancement of medicine. As well as this, the Trouble was also morbidly beneficial in that it helped the increasing overpopulation problem, similar to what happened in Europe with the Black Death several centuries later. The Trouble was named after the Time of Troubles, a period of instability and civil war which happened at the same time as the plague. Doctors did not really know how to cure the plague, despite a great many "doctors" making vast sums of money off claiming to be able to cure it. The only foolproof method doctors had of curing the plague was quarantining the infected so that the plague could not spread and would eventually die out. Initially, especially given the instability at the time, the various governments of the Empire were unwilling to put this into place on a large scale, however beginning in around 947 they were tired of the mass death the plague was causing and agreed to begin extreme quarantining measures. Any household with the plague was burnt down with the occupants inside, anyone with the plague was quarantined in a cell, and anyone not showing signs of healing after one week was killed. This dramatically rose the death toll but also stopped the spread of the plague dead in its tracks, which eventually wiped it out.